


Kaleidiscope Eyes

by sabasama



Category: Free!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Christmas, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Potty mouth Rin, Pure Unadulterated Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, don't be fooled by the title there are no drugs in this i promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 03:34:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5523932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabasama/pseuds/sabasama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haru's got a little extra gift for Rin this Christmas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kaleidiscope Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Secret Santa gift exchange for literallynothingbutrinharu!! I had so much fun writing this and I hope you guys enjoy it just as much. 
> 
> Keep in mind that the boys are probably around their later twenties here. {:

Shutting the door, Rin slumps against it with a relieved sigh. It’s Christmas day and they’d just finished having a dinner and gift exchange with family and old friends. It had been a treat to have a part of Samezuka back together for the holidays, and he’s certain Haru felt the same after seeing Makoto, the twins, Nagisa, and Rei again. Growing up sometimes meant growing apart, but in their case, that was only true in the physical sense.

 

Rin straightens up, glad to finally shed his red vest, draping it over the couch as he makes his way to the kitchen, smoothing his black dress shirt. Haru stands at the sink, drying off the last of the champagne glasses.

 

“Need any help?” Rin asks, leaning against the entryway of the kitchen as he loosens his tie and unclasps the first two buttons of his shirt.

 

Haru shakes his head in the negative while he places the last glass away and nudges the dishwasher closed with his hip. “Already done.”

 

“Of course,” Rin chuckles under his breath, sauntering across the kitchen to plant his hands on Haru’s hips and kiss him chastely. “I can’t believe Sousuke got you another pair of jammers,” Rin mumbles against Haru’s lips.

 

“And surprisingly acceptable ones, too…” Haru scoffs, trying to act flippant. They’d made amends years ago and had actually become rather close friends, but they still insisted on keeping up their stiff attitudes and backhanded jabs. In the end, everyone knew the truth so it didn’t matter either way.  

 

“You’re unbelievable,” Rin laughs, wrapping his arms around Haru’s waist and pulling him snug against his body for another kiss, longer this time as they both relax into each other’s arms after a long day.

 

Haru smiles against his lips before leaning back and cupping Rin’s face with his palms, guiding him to lock eyes.

 

“I’ve got another present for you.”

 

“Really?” Rin grins, crooked and jagged, “another one?”

 

Haru gently twists out of his hold and makes his way to the living room where he pulls a medium sized box from behind the tree.

 

Rin stares curiously. “Why was it hiding?”

 

“I wanted to give it to you alone,” Haru replies simply, seating himself on the couch and staring at Rin expectantly, silently urging him to join. 

 

Rin raises a brow in question but complies, crossing the living room and sitting down. His boyfriend acting mysterious is no new, outrageous phenomenon, so he faces him head on with a smirk and a quirk of his eyebrow that Haru knows translates to a solid “bring-it-on”. 

 

Haru turns in his seat, offering the present. To someone with an untrained eye, Haru’s expression would probably appear to be of complete calm and indifference, but Rin catches the twinkle of nervousness in those blue eyes; of what, he has no clue.

 

“This is pretty big,” Rin comments as he accepts the box, surprised to find it’s rather on the light side. “What is it?”

 

Haru rolls his eyes in response, clearly deciding not to answer, and nudges him to hurry along with it. What’s the point of asking when he can just find out?

 

“Alright, alright no need to be so pushy.” Rin chides playfully, adding a wink for good measure. Haru only huffs impatiently in response.

 

He sets the present down on his lap, wondering what could possibly be inside. When he comes up with nothing, Rin decides his best bet is just opening up and finding out. Which is exactly what he does.

 

…

 

“What’s this supposed to be?”

 

Haru only continues to stare blankly at him with those big twinkling blue eyes.

 

Rin reaches in and pulls a second box out, immaculately wrapped and slightly smaller than the first. 

 

“Is this some kind of joke?” 

 

“Unwrap it and find out.”

 

Rin huffs in amusement, curiosity getting the better of him as he carefully pries the paper off of the second box to open and reveal none other than another box, again perfectly wrapped and slightly smaller.

 

“Ya gotta be fucking with me, right?” Rin laughs in mild annoyance, side eyeing Haru.

 

Haru breaks his blank stare to frown, smacking Rin’s arm lightly. Rin squawks indignantly and turns back to the never-ending present. 

 

“Alright then, I’ll play along with your little game,” He grumbles, wiggling his fingers in anticipation before the attack. 

 

He rips the paper and packaging apart to find yet another wrapped box.

 

“Come _ on! _ ”

 

He doesn’t even bother to bite any remarks at Haru at this point, tearing into the next package, and the next, and the next. Paper flies left and right and Haru only sits quietly, watching Rin make a mess of his creation and smiling faintly when he finally reaches the smallest box.

 

“This better be it or I swear to fucking…” Rin grumbles, eyeing the box menacingly as if it’s done him some horrendous wrong. Haru can’t help but laugh and Rin looks up, seemingly startled as if he’d forgotten he was even there.

 

His frown melts into a grin, bumping their knees playfully. “Hey, hey! You enjoying my pain here? Well, your little game’s about to end!”

 

The smile immediately slips from Haru’s lips and he averts his gaze suddenly, fingers fiddling in his lap. Rin only raises a brow questioningly before turning back towards the neatly wrapped box in his lap. 

 

He takes this one apart slowly, suddenly apprehensive about what could have Haru so nervous. Even now, he still can’t think of what the present could likely be and the curiosity is eating away at him. The paper comes loose and in a sudden bout of impatience, Rin tears it away.

 

…

 

What sits in his lap now is, indeed, still a box. A small, black velvet box.

 

The air seems to fly from Rin’s lungs as if suctioned out. His brain flips to channel 03, static ringing in his ears. Then the doubt rolls in. It can’t be what he thinks it is, has to be some sick joke Haru’s playing on him. He’s already done a fantastic job with the wrapping so obviously this just has to be the punchline, right? His mind runs circles, throwing out possibility after possibility when only moments ago he couldn’t think of one thing this present could be. A voice in the back of his head is calling his name imploringly, as if trying to make him believe in the impossible, believe that this can be exactly what he thinks it is.

 

“..in? Rin?”

 

A hand appears in his vision, picking up the velvet box that had become the focal point of Rin’s being for the past minute. His eyes follow the box as if perpetually glued to it and he turns to find Haru squirming, worriedly eyeing Rin. It helps to somewhat clear Rin’s racing mind, pulling him back down to Earth on the couch next to his boyfriend.

 

(Fianc é?  _ Oh, god. _ )

 

Rin swears he combusts right then and there, going red from head to toe. 

 

“Ha-Haru?” He can’t help but squeak, too flabbergasted to be embarrassed about the way his voice cracks and pitches.

 

Haru only takes a deep breath to steady himself and when his eyes open again, they glint with determination. 

 

“Rin.”

 

A thunderbolt shoots down Rin’s spine at the sound of his voice, unshakeable and filled with some type of emotion Rin can’t quite pinpoint because it’s not something Haru exhibits often: anxiousness. Rin audibly gulps in response, too far gone to string together words into anything comprehensible. 

 

Haru keeps his gaze leveled as he sets a surprisingly steady hand over the box and flips it open to reveal (not another neatly wrapped, microsized box as Rin had predicted) a simple silver band, twinkling with a mirage of colors as it reflects the blinking lights of their Christmas tree. 

 

“Will you marry me?”

 

He means to say something, he really does, but the moment Rin opens his mouth a choked sound rattles out and it’s like he’s back to the day he’d asked Haru out on their first date. He understands now, the anxiousness, the side glances, the fidgeting. He also understands that the longer he sits there with his mouth hanging open and not answering, the closer Haru gets to blowing a fuse.

 

So he does the next best thing: tackles him.

 

“R-Ringh!”

 

They fall back into a heap against the armrest of the sofa. Rin’s buries his face in Haru’s chest in an attempt to hide the globs of tears erupting from his eyes, finally finding his voice as he chokes out a string of  _ yes _ ’s and  _ Haru _ ’s and  _ I love you _ ’s and fists his  _ fiancé’s _ dress shirt so hard it threatens to come undone from his trousers. 

 

Haru sighs in relief when he finds the ring still snuggly sitting in the silk cushion of the box. He huffs, blowing his fringe from his eyes and feels his facial features soften into a fond, warm smile when he looks down at the mound of trembling red hair on his chest.

 

“Romantic, right?” Haru implores lightly, carding the fingers of his free hand through Rin’s hair.

 

After a few steadying breaths and when he’s certain he can speak without hiccuping, Rin props his chin on Haru’s sternum. He sniffs loudly and frowns.

 

“Shut up, how dare you spring that on me with no warning,”

 

“That's kind of the point, Rin…” Haru mumbles, trying to bite back the big smile threatening to crack his face in half. He taps Rin’s left arm, silently requesting his hand. 

 

Eagerly, Rin sits up straighter to offer Haru his hand. He mentally pats himself on the back for not shaking like a leaf. 

 

Haru, on the other hand, goes completely red when he realizes he’s being pinned down with a hundred and twelve percent of Rin’s attention. The reason he’d opted to doing this in private was to avoid being the center of attention to a crowd, but Rin’s attention equaled to that of a hundred men, either way. His mind swirls, going off into a million different tangents. If you'd told him ten years ago on this day that he'd be sitting on a couch in an apartment he shared with his boyfriend Rin and asking him to marry him, he'd probably have bursted out laughing and anyone who knew him ten years ago (even today) would be surprised by an outburst like that. Yet here he is, not as levelheaded as he had hoped he’d be, and about to slip a ring onto his  _ fiancé’s  _ finger. 

 

His heart flutters up into his throat at the thought. Rin, his  _ fiancé _ .

 

With this echoing in his mind, Haru steels himself as he slips the ring from the box and reaches for Rin’s left hand. He tries to hold him steady, unsure of whether it's him trembling or Rin or both, as he slips the band onto the last finger before the pinky. Haru nervously double checks to make sure it's the correct finger before peeking up at Rin through his lashes, hands lingering. 

 

Haru’s tethered down to Earth by the look in Rin’s eyes. He’s stopped crying but his eyes are a swirl of colors, his own red accompanied by the colorful lights from the tree, like a kaleidoscope. 

 

“Merry Christmas, Rin.” He breathes, too winded to speak above a whisper.

 

Rin answers with the most dazzling, if not watery, smile before leaning forward for a kiss that tastes of a lifetime promise and cinnamon.

  
“Merry Christmas, Haru.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated.


End file.
